What are the Rights Protected by Copyright?

In the introduction to this course it was explained that the most important feature of property is that the owner may use it exclusively, i.e., as she/he wishes, and that nobody else can lawfully use it without the owner's authorization. The phrase "as she/he wishes" does not, of course, mean that they can use it regardless of the legally recognized rights and interests of other members of society. For example, the owner of a car may use it "as she wishes,"

but this does not mean that she may drive her car recklessly and create danger to others, nor that she may disregard traffic regulations. Copyright is a branch of intellectual property. The owner of copyright in a protected work may use the work as he wishes, and may prevent others from using it without his authorization. Thus, the rights granted under national laws to the owner of copyright in a protected work are normally "exclusive rights": to use the work or to authorize others to use the work, subject to the legally recognized rights and interests of others.

There are two types of rights under copyright: economic rights, which allow the owner of rights to derive financial reward from the use of his works by others, and moral rights, which allow the author to take certain actions to

preserve the personal link between himself and the work. Now listen to the next audio segment and try to distinguish the various economic rights that are described.

Audio segment 2: What rights does a copyright holder have?

The copyright holder has a set of different rights which are governed partly by the Berne Convention, where there are minimum rights, and partly by national law, which often takes the rights even further. Traditionally and

historically, the right of reproduction is the key, which incidentally is reflected in the word copyright. The right of reproduction would, for instance, cover the printing of books – and photocopying too – but it also covers more modern methods of reproduction such as tape recording and the copying of tape recordings. It covers the storage of works in computer memories and of course the copying of computer programs on diskettes, CD-ROMS, CD- writeable ROMS and so on.

Another right that has a long history is the right of performance. You perform a work when you play a tune, for example, or when you act on stage, and over the year that right has given rise to a number of other rights, such as the right of broadcasting and the right of communication to the public, the latter being sometimes defined differently in various national laws: broadcasting may actually form part of communication to the public, or they may be linked parallel concepts, but typically all kinds of communication will be covered, broadcasting being one, but cable

distribution could be another, and Internet distribution another again.

SAQ 2: What were the two types of rights mentioned in the audio?

Answer: Two were mentioned and these were:

The right of reproduction – examples of this right were the right to authorize photocopies, printed copies or copies of cassettes.

The rights related to performance, etc. – examples here were the right to perform the work e.g. as a song and the rights to communicate the work to the public and to broadcast it.

Another important group of rights, which were not mentioned in the audio segment, are those relating to translation and adaptation.

All of these rights will receive further coverage in the following three sections.

Right of Reproduction

The right of the owner of copyright to prevent others from making copies of his works is the most basic right under copyright. For example, the making of copies of a protected work is the act performed by a publisher who wishes to

distribute copies of a text-based work to the public, whether in the form of printed copies or digital media such as CD-ROMs. Likewise, the right of a phonogram producer to manufacture and distribute compact discs (CDs) containing recorded performances of musical works is based, in part, on the authorization given by

the composers of such works to reproduce their compositions in the recording. Therefore, the right to control the act of reproduction is the legal basis for many forms of exploitation of protected works.

Other rights are recognized in national laws in addition to the basic right of reproduction. For example, some laws include a right to authorize distribution of copies of works; obviously, the right of reproduction would be of little economic value if the owner of copyright could not authorize the distribution of the copies made with his consent. The right of distribution is usually subject to exhaustion upon first sale or other transfer of ownership of a copy, which is made with the authorization of the rights owner. This means that, after the copyright owner has sold or otherwise transferred ownership of a particular copy of a work, the owner of that copy may dispose of it without the copyright owner's further permission, by giving it away or even by reselling it.

However, as regards rental of such copies, an increasing number of national copyright laws, as well as the TRIPS Agreement, have recognized a separate right for computer programs, audiovisual works and phonograms. The

right of rental is justified because technological advances have made it very easy to copy these types of works; experience in some countries has showed that copies were made by customers of rental shops, and therefore, that the right to control rental practices was necessary in order to safeguard the copyright owner's right of reproduction. Finally, some copyright laws include a right to control importation of copies as a means of preventing erosion of the principle of territoriality of copyright; that is, the economic interests of the copyright owner

would be endangered if he could not exercise the rights of reproduction and distribution on a territorial basis.

There are some acts of reproducing a work which are exceptions to the general rule, because they do not require the authorization of the author or other owner of rights; these are known as "limitations" on rights. For example, many

national laws traditionally allow individuals to make single copies of works for private, personal and non-commercial purposes. The emergence of digital technology, which creates the possibility of making high-quality, unauthorized copies of works that are virtually indistinguishable from the source (and thus a perfect substitute for the purchase of, or other legitimate access to, authorized copies), has called into question the continued justification for such a limitation on the right of reproduction.